Chicago Screws Made Out Of Wood?

[courtney]

A made in USA shirt costs 15 cents? Where do you get these numbers?

[DavidL]

A made in USA shirt costs 15 cents? Where do you get these numbers?

Paid per piece to the worker, meaning the worker would get 15 cents a shirt or whatever the factory would pay him and a wage below minimum ($5 for example). That way there is an incentive for the worker to not slack off so they can get paid for their skill not by base pay. The very same way a waitress gets paid with tips and base wage of $5.

How big is this going to be, I am a retired craftman and I can only guess how many you would have to make ( with all that would break) just to get 10 units. You have been given a lot of ideals I would try a couple and see. If not put a ad. in the paper and pay him by the hour to make them.

the size of a regular sized cap, perhaps a little larger say 1.2cm diameter and 4mm tall. I won't be doing it with male or female ends just 2 caps that are flat on the bottom w/ two holes and a small dowel connecting them. So breakage should be few if not none I would imagine.

You want exotic wood plugs. You're looking at reconstituted 70% plastic/30% wood (which you would still have to pay someone to 3d model for you, nobody works for free man.) You say you want the whittled look, not the perfect finish then you say you want them CNC milled (which would need programming which would not get done for free). You want them threaded, unthreaded, male, female...

I was throwing out ideas that could be done instead of exotic wood plugs. I had the impression from most people on this thread that it couldn't be done at my price point so a cheaper alternative was through 3d printer. But I am not decided yet on what I would go through with.

you mention piece work, again, thats for volumes, significant volumes.

What you want made is a one off (even if you order 100), no chance anyone will take that on for piece work rates

Dont dismiss the skill required to produce something like this, its not a minimum wage skill !

You seem to be still aiming at low price, high volumes (which I think is nuts for hand made product).

If that really is your target market, why are you considering hand made wooden components ??

No-one will give a damn at that price, just use normal ones, they won't care.

I want to make a fair product thats not 200 to 300 dollars. So if I can get one set made for 4-5 dollars including labour,material and shipping the price won't be 120 dollars for a 3 pocket card wallet, something in the 59-79 dollar range for a 3 pocket card holder(in the middle of high end and low end). 4-5 dollars for a plug is still not high end but is sure a lot better than a 20 cent rivet. At that price it is high quality but not in the ball park of silver, gold or precious material.

This product won't be low end but somewhere in the middle of high end looks and quality with a reasonable price thats slightly higher than what they would pay for a regular wallet from the store.

I also want a product that will stand out from the rest but not command a price way over price because of personal choice,. If the plugs were made at 10-12 dollars a piece which would need 4 plugs for a wallet = 40 dollars plus leather costs and supplies and my time, it wouldn't be worth it in the end to both reach my price point and make a profit. So a lower price is what I'm looking for in the plugs by finding a easy manufacturing process to lower the cost.

I did suggest earlier that he try someone who turns pens, but warned they would not take the price he was after. I also suggested he actually try what he's saying is so easy.

I honestly think you are way beyond what your original brief was and you need to go back, cost things in a more realistic manner and see if this is ever going to be worth your time. People have suggested various ways in which you could do this and each has been dismissed. FYI, a bond with a good PVA wood glue between 2 flat surfaces is stronger than most of the woods you'd be gluing together - test it out! Get 2 pieces, flatten the ends, glue as per the instructions and try to break the join. You will break the wood first, not the join, if you've followed the instructions correctly.

I just haven't responded to some people because I didn't want to get into an argument, otherwise I had nothing to say. I took on the advice of the members so that the idea can be established further. I've went through the process which was first chicago screws, which was not recommended by members because it would take too much work to get those done. So i resorted to male/female ends (one end is a solid rectangle and the other a rectangle hole). Then tree reaper sent in a response which I thought could work which was the two ends with a dowel through the middle which is the least labour intensive.

gluing the two wooden pieces together would be the best way but to get them glue together and act like a wooden cap plug to secure two leather pieces together like a jiffy rivet I don't see how that will work without one plug having a secondary cylinder cut out so it can fit in the smaller hole of the leather.

I don't think I will go out and try this because I don't have the a whittling knife, a bandsaw and bass wood to try to get the original idea of a cap w/ female and male ends. It may take 2 months before I'm able to get the skill to make a cap and cost of material. A skilled worker would be able to make one plug in 30 minutes or less(taking time to plan it out) the way tree reaper responded. Each would take 2 -3 minutes, however I can not be certain until it is tested by the worker.

Through all of the post I came up with the decision of the plug below. The process will be a 1 cm diameter square cut out of a larger material thats a few feet long. It will be rounded so it is shaped like a cylinder. Then the worker will run the top on a belt sander to establish the rounded shape and wittle the top of the cylinder till it resembles a cap w/ natural markings and finally measure and cut off below the cap to get a flat bottom. Holes will be drilled on the bottom so a dowel can be inserted.

Edited May 6, 2014 by DavidL

[Tree Reaper]

It took about twenty minutes for me to make that wooden rivet and the jig used to hold the caps to enable drilling.

You can glue the dowel in the fixed hole, put the dowel through the leather and all the way through the other plug or cap with glue and then clamp it tight.

When the glue dries you trim off the excess dowel and sand flush.

Just put the plug with the sanded dowel on the bottom side.

This will be much stronger than anything threaded.

If you want the wooden caps to sit lower in the leather then punch the right size hole for the dowel and then counter bore for the plug itself.

[DavidL]

It took about twenty minutes for me to make that wooden rivet and the jig used to hold the caps to enable drilling.

You can glue the dowel in the fixed hole, put the dowel through the leather and all the way through the other plug or cap with glue and then clamp it tight.

When the glue dries you trim off the excess dowel and sand flush.

Just put the plug with the sanded dowel on the bottom side.

This will be much stronger than anything threaded.

If you want the wooden caps to sit lower in the leather then punch the right size hole for the dowel and then counter bore for the plug itself.

Do you mind taking a picture of the jig so I can use it for a reference to show the woodworker. These dowels are what size and available at hardware stores?

The last sentence does that mean to drill a hole for the cap without a dowel?

I also appreciate that you took time to make the jig. Thank you.

[Tree Reaper]

The last sentence was for a counter bore, this is a larger hole on top of the smaller dowel hole so the cap can sink down into the leather, you can make it fit flush to the leather surface if you want.

I'll try and do that tomorrow and post it to show you what I mean.(I'm watching the hockey game)

The jig is just a scrap piece of wood, the plugs I had on hand are 1/4"dia.

I drilled a 1/4" hole in the scrap wood and then cut across it with a band saw.

To drill the plug, put it in the hole and place a clamp on the outside of the scrap jig.

This squeezes the plug in the hole and locks it for drilling.

The dowel is 1/8" stock from a local hardware store.

You can get a cheap plug cutter and cut your own plugs from any rough stock or use commercial plugs and rough them up with a sander on a dremel.

These are cheap and strong and should serve your purpose.

[Tree Reaper]

This is the difference between the two depth settings.

They both have the 1/8 dowel hole but the one on the right is counter bored with a forstner bit in order to sink it deeper into the leather.

These are plugs but you can also buy caps which are a lower profile.

[Tree Reaper]

One other option providing the leather is thick enough is to use the counter bore method and a standard rivet then glue your wood cap to the metal rivet cap with JB Weld.

[Tree Reaper]

Another option is to drill out the base of the wood cap and glue it to a standard chicago screw.

[DavidL]

What tool should I look out for to drill out the base?

[Tree Reaper]

I would buy a forstner bit the size that matches your chicago screw head.

Depending on the thickness of your cap you might have to grind the pilot down on the bit so it doesn't come through the cap.

If you had to do that I would use one good bit to start the bore and then use the ground off pilot on a second bit to finish it to the proper depth.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Tree Reaper